Mel Torme Quotes

People always ask, 'How do you write so many books?' And I say, I work a lot. I work six or seven days a week.

I used to get up and write every day, even if I wasn't working on a specific thing. Now, when I have a thing I'm in the middle of, I do that, but when I'm not, time can go by when I'm not writing at all.

For me, writing is 75 percent procrastinating and 25 percent actually sitting down and working.

Every spare second I would write, somehow. On my lunch hour, too.

I write every day. I don't have a writing schedule. I write when I feel like it. Fortunately, I feel like it all the time. I am writing for hours. I do like to write in the morning. I start after breakfast, like 9 o'clock, and I'll write till lunch, about 1. And after lunch, I just have fun.

I write in the afternoon, from about 12 until 6 or 7. I use an upstairs room as my office. Once I get going I keep at it, and it usually takes about six months from the first blank screen until 'The End.'

Aim to write for an hour per day. I used to be a teacher, and an hour a day before school was all it took for me to write my first book. Don't get discouraged if a holiday or illness interrupts your writing habit. Just start it up again.

I'm not a disciplined writer.

Normally, young writers have all the time in the world and they don't always use it well.

I am always trying to write.

There's no such thing as a writer's block. If you're having trouble writing, well, pick up the pen and write. No matter what, keep that hand moving. Writing is really a physical activity.

The hardest part is making the time to write. Not finding the time to write, mind you. Making.

I'm not the most talented writer in the world. I know that. But I also know that I'm disciplined, that I work my butt off, and that I make myself write as much as I can. Writer's block is a luxury I can't afford. I'm a professional writer, which means that I put my butt in the chair each day, and I write. Simple as that.

I don't answer the phone or do my email; I don't do anything until I've got the day's writing done. I have a word count for every day: 500 for fiction, 1,000 for non-fiction, and journalism is 1,500. That's a level I can sustain.

My method is, I just sit down and write a book.

People imagine that there are rituals, like lighting candles or sacrificing chickens. They really just want to know what the magic formula is for writing. I inevitably disappoint them by saying you just put your butt in the chair, and you write 500 words a day, and then you get up and repeat it the next morning.

I can write a book in probably three months.

How can you stop writing?

I write books back to back, and I work very hard on them.

The main thing about writing is... writing. Sitting your butt down in the chair and doing the work.

I write pretty much year-round, but I definitely do more when a deadline is looming.

For any writers at all, read everything you can and then put your butt in the chair and write. That's all there is to it.

I make time to write.

You don't find time to write. You make time. It's my job.

When I'm working on a novel, I work 70-hour weeks.